Red Bull chose the final Turkish Grand Prix practice to unleash their monstrous pace as Sebastian Vettel left it late to set the fastest time.
The German finished nearly three tenths of a second ahead of Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton continuing to take the fight to the Red Bulls in third.
However, Webber and Vettel may well have been further ahead of the pack had it not been for both drivers committing a number of errors throughout the session. Mark Webber was the biggest culprit, running wide on a numerous occasions while attempting to take the notorious turn 8 flat. For this the Australian was forced to settle for fourth position, but will have breathed a huge sigh of relief after a throttle issue, at the very beginning of the hour, did not turn out to be too serious.
As a result, the 33-year-old will be confident of challenging for pole after overcoming the engine failure which blighted yesterday’s running and setting a number of competitive sector times.
In addition, Vettel’s fastest lap, set at the very end of the session, was also delayed by traffic in the third sector – suggesting that the young German may well have more pace in hand.
Robert Kubica continued to strong run of form with the fifth fastest time for Renault, edging out Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher. Jenson Button was eighth.
The session proved disasterious for the Force India of Adrian Sutil. The German was unable to complete a flying lap after a hydraulic glitch could not be repaired within the hour.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Vettel Red Bull 1:27.086 18 2. Rosberg Mercedes 1:27.359 + 0.273 16 3. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.396 + 0.310 14 4. Webber Red Bull 1:27.553 + 0.467 15 5. Kubica Renault 1:27.784 + 0.698 20 6. Alonso Ferrari 1:27.861 + 0.775 18 7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:27.879 + 0.793 16 8. Button McLaren 1:27.963 + 0.877 17 9. Massa Ferrari 1:27.969 + 0.883 20 10. Petrov Renault 1:28.344 + 1.258 18 11. Buemi Toro Rosso 1:28.610 + 1.524 22 12. de la Rosa Sauber 1:28.652 + 1.566 20 13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:28.734 + 1.648 21 14. Kobayashi Sauber 1:29.036 + 1.950 20 15. Hulkenberg Williams 1:29.044 + 1.958 18 16. Liuzzi Force India 1:29.211 + 2.125 15 17. Barrichello Williams 1:29.305 + 2.219 14 18. Trulli Lotus 1:30.618 + 3.532 19 19. Kovalainen Lotus 1:30.884 + 3.798 22 20. Glock Virgin 1:31.341 + 4.255 21 21. di Grassi Virgin 1:32.180 + 5.094 16 22. Senna HRT 1:32.230 + 5.144 21 23. Chandhok HRT 1:32.762 + 5.676 19 24. Sutil Force India No time 1
